Two more Salk faculty elected as AAAS Fellows

Joseph R. Ecker and Joseph P. Noel
have been named 2012 Fellows of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),
the world's largest general scientific society and
the publisher of the journal Science. Election
as an AAAS Fellow is among the highest honors in
American science. Scientists are selected by their
peers for "scientifically or socially distinguished
efforts to advance science or its applications,"
according to election administrators.

Joseph R. Ecker

"We are very proud of these investigators
and the distinguished research that they have
conducted at the Institute," says Salk president
William R. Brody. "We congratulate them on their
election as AAAS Fellows and look forward to
their many more scientific accomplishments in
the future."

Joseph Ecker, a professor in the Salk's Plant
Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, is a
Howard Hughes Medical Institute&$8211;Gordon and
Betty Moore Foundation investigator, a member of
the National Academy of Sciences and holder of the
Salk International Council Chair in Genetics. He
was honored for his contributions to

Joseph P. Noel

the genomics/
epigenomics of plant and human cells, particularly
for the development of new tools that enable
genome-wide analyses.

Joseph Noel, professor and director of Salk's
Jack H. Skirball Center for Chemical Biology and
Proteomics, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator and the inaugural holder of the Arthur
and Julie Woodrow Chair. Noel was selected for his
contributions to the understanding of plant metabolism,
especially the evolution, biochemistry and
structures underlying the biosynthesis of specialized
metabolites, including polyketides and terpenes.

Ecker and Noel are among 702 new members
who were honored during the 2013 AAAS annual
meeting in Boston on February 16. The elections
bring the Salk's current total of AAAS Fellows
to 16.